6 Simple Ways To Give Older Blog Posts Additional Exposure

As blogs grow, and new content gets created, old blog posts can quickly get lost in the archives. As much as bloggers try to keep everything organized, it’s hard to ensure that all posts get the exposure they deserve. However, there are ways to help ensure that older posts get additional exposure.

1. Related Posts

On individual post pages, add links to other related posts. This shows visitors that there is more content on your blog that might be of interest to the reader. I’d suggest showing 5 posts as it gives a little variety without giving to many options.

3. Recent Comments

Having a list of the 5 most recent comments, with links back to those posts, can highlight which posts are getting the most chatter. These may be newer posts, or they may be older ones, either way, we are drawing more attention to additional posts and possibly gain more comments.

4. Random Post

You can add a random link to the blog navigation that when it’s clicked on, WordPress will choose a post at random to show. This works great for blogs with a lot of good information that doesn’t necessarily get outdated over time. Then again, sometimes it’s just fun to go back in time and see how things have evolved.

5. Social Icons

Having social icons on each blog post helps encourage readers to promote those posts for you. As an example, if someone comes to your site from a search engine, lands on a post from 5 months ago, and likes it, we want to encourage them to Tweet it, bookmark it, or use one of the many social networks to drive more traffic to the post.

Tip: Sociable is a nice plug-in for creating a list of social bookmarking icon links at the end of each post. The Social Bookmark Generator works well for creating a list of links or a drop down menu.

6. Internal Linking

Internal linking is an easy way for a blog owner to control which older posts get additional exposure. When writing a post, cite what has been said in the past with links in the content. Readers may find that the supporting posts are evidence that you’re an authority figure on the topic too.

Tip: No plug-in required, just link to other posts in the content.

Most blogs can benefit from using one, or more, of the items above to help showcase posts that may have fallen into the abyss of the archives. Bloggers write a lot of good content and anything that we can do to promote additional posts will benefit not only the blog, but the readers as well.

What other ideas do you have to promote older posts? Share them in the comments below.